Training for Utah: Part Deux - Jay Peak, VT

Some guy at the base warned us against Kitz, especially with me on Tele skis because he said there were lots of ski grabbing rocks that might lead to faceplants.

In retrospect, we probably could have done it, but I was pretty satisfied with what we skied.

I'm not a big fan of most trip reports.  This one is an exception.  Really cool.  I can't believe how much snow you guys found up there.

Superb shots and video. The chest cam seems to give a less distorted view of the skiing. The snow looked silky.
It is also good to now know that Jay is part of the Green Mountains.
Keep these reports coming!

mattchuck2 wrote

Some guy at the base warned us against Kitz, especially with me on Tele skis because he said there were lots of ski grabbing rocks that might lead to faceplants.

In retrospect, we probably could have done it, but I was pretty satisfied with what we skied.

He might have been sandbagging you to protect his stash. My brother and I ducked the rope on Kitz a few years ago during a very snowless Christmas week. There was about seven inches of natural snow over a frozen moss base. It was surprisingly good and we just skied around the big rocks. In the conditions you encountered it would have been just fine. Shorter pitch though, Powerline and Derick have way longer continuous pitch.

mattchuck2 wrote

Some guy at the base warned us against Kitz, especially with me on Tele skis because he said there were lots of ski grabbing rocks that might lead to faceplants.

In retrospect, we probably could have done it, but I was pretty satisfied with what we skied.

Knowing the mountain is a huge plus early season. For Kitz, stay left and hug the trees as you enter to avoid the rocks which are widely spread out and mostly in the center on the first pitch. Given that you guys skied Powerline without bottoming out much, there probably weren't many non-tree trails short of the Passage and Ullr's which wouldn't have skied well.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Excellent work, MC2 and TBatt. Good line choices too: Powerline can be a sleeper and the Derick, well the Derick Hot Shot is just a great trail anytime. This got me thinking - what would I have skied had I been there? JFK for sure, it collects snow on skier's left and possibly Kitzbuhel. The Kitz skis low-snow conditions very well, despite its gnarly reputation. Although this was hardly low-snow!

Derick is a great early season trail because it catch's snowmaking from Haynes to build a minimal base under the natural. And it is just a great trail. JFK is not a good option early season, IMO, since it dumps out onto Ullr's. You don't want to ski out of Ullr's on natural snow. And upper Ullr's has MASSIVE water bars, not good for skinning and there probably isn't a skin track. My favorite early season trails are Derick, Upper Milk, and most especially Green Mountain Boys. GMB has the pitch of JFK but you can get back to stateside or take a round about skin track back up for a second run.

When I was there Tuesday, I had my best run ever down Vermonter. I'll often not bother with the summit as I don't much care for Vermonter but it was great. Then I hit Upper Milk, freaking sweet. I was going to go for GMB but my skin tail snapped because I tried to tighten it too much due to my skins being non-sticky. A great early season day at Jay for me is Derick > Upper Milk > GMB. You cover a lot of ground and ski a lot of mountain and the skinning to all three is pretty easy via trails that often have a snow mobile path.

Wish I had gotten Can Am to Liftline... I passed by that way on Taxi and it looked incredible. I'm sure someone scored the best run they've ever had down Can Am at least one time this week.